Holiday traditions are big at our house. They always have been, from the time I was young.
When I was a little girl, we always had a live Christmas tree, put multi-colored candles in the window, sent Christmas cards, and listened to special Christmas music: A Firestone Christmas album of Julie Andrews singing Christmas carols and Elvis Presley’s Christmas Album. (Christmas still isn’t Christmas without listening to The King sing White Christmas and Santa Bring My Baby Back. 🙂
My mother and I always made Christmas cookies (my cousin’s recipe) and a cake in the shape of a Christmas tree–with green icing of course. And I always loved wrapping the presents. I wrapped all of our gifts and then went to my aunt’s house and wrapped hers!
On Christmas morning I always got up early, so my dad could watch me open my presents before going off to work (he got double time on Christmas Day). We had ham biscuits under the tree as we opened presents, then after all the ooohing and ahhhing was done, my mother and I would dress up in our new outfits and make the rounds of the family. It simply wasn’t Christmas if we didn’t visit cousins and aunts and uncles all over the area. And always in the same order. Like I said, tradition is a strong part of the holiday for me.
Now, with my own family, the traditions have changed some. I still send Christmas cards–I address them on Black Friday! We still have a live tree (always will if I have anything to
say about it), but now our girls decorate it all by themselves, a tradition we started when they were about 5 & 6. We don’t bake special cookies, but Christmas is still about special foods. We have oyster stew and ham biscuits for breakfast. For lunch Cornish game hens. And for desert, sherry trifle and pumpkin pie. We stay home all day and play with our “toys,” though sometimes we go to a movie in the afternoon. (This year we go to see Les Miserables!)
Each of the tales in my collection of Christmas stories, All Wrapped Up, began with a tradition: giving presents, mistletoe, caroling, and Christmas dinner. These romances are short and sweet–or as one reviewer put it “like eating romance M&Ms.”
Blurb for All Wrapped Up:
Four short stories filled with romance at Christmas time.
The Present
A girl has to break the news to her sister’s boyfriend that he’s being dumped–on Christmas
Eve– and finds herself a pawn for the boyfriend’s revenge.
Sing A Christmas Carol
A singing group’s decision to drop one member before the big carolling competition leads to an awkward situation.
The Kissing Tree
Two children discover a secret place on Christmas Day–with far-reaching effects.
‘Tis the Season
A Christmas dinner announcement shatters a young girl’s dream of a magical social season until a knight in shining armor proposes an alternate plan.
Now to the real fun stuff! We want to hear about what you do for the holidays, what you read, and who you’ll spend it with. We hope to see you here and happy hopping!
And while we do that, we are EACH doing a giveaway. Yep. There will be over 200 giveaways on each blog hosted by that Author or Blogger.
But that’s not all….
We have THREE grand prizes. You as a reader can go to EACH blog and comment with your email address and be entered to win. Yep, you can enter over 200 times!
Now what are those prizes?
1st Grand Prize: A Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet
2nd Grand Prize: A $200 Amazon or B&N Gift Card
3rd Grand Prize: A Swag Pack that contains paperbacks, ebooks, 50+ bookmarks, cover flats, magnets, pens, coffee cozies, and more!
In addition, I’m giving away a copy of one of my back listed book–and that’s ANY one of my books! From newest releases (Only Scandal Will Do and 7 Days of Seduction) to old favorites. To be entered into the giveaway, leave me a comment WITH YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS (If you don’t leave an email, you won’t be eligible to win.) and tell me about your holiday traditions.
After commenting, please click the icon below to take you to the linky list and the next blog with Christmas cheer. Happy Holidays!
Jenna Jaxon Romance--because passion is timeless. 
On Christmas Eve we order in pizza & then after dinner we open up one gift each. The other gifts we open up after church on Christmas morning.
marypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com
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My family all go to the FlowerHouse and see all the pretty new flowes.bibbiesparks@yahoo.com
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We wait until everyone is awake on Christmas day to open presents and then play monopoly in our pj’s, taking breaks for breakfast/brunch (pancakes or french toast) and then lunch/dinner (usually leftovers from Christmas Eve dinner).
ivegotmail8889(at)yahoo(dot)com
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We have a lot of holiday traditions but one of my favorites is buying a snowman ornament for my daughter each year. 🙂
always.and.never AT gmail DOT com
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One of our family traditions was that when our stockings got “stuffed”, an orange was placed into the bottom of the stocking. In writing this memory, I never asked my mother (who passed away several years ago) why the orange in the bottom. I know we always had it for Christmas breakfast but i don’t know if it had any other special meaning.
Thank you for participating in this great hop.
Happy Holidays!
Lynn
lareynolds0316@gmail.com
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Thanks for being in the Holiday Blog Hop! I really enjoy the holiday season. I enjoy the smells, the food and lights. Oh and the music too. Not much into baking anymore. But I do enjoy tasting, ask my scales. Tee Hee. Great blog. roya-clan@sbcglobal.net
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My family and I get together on Christmas Eve the adults who drew names exchange presents. We give presents to our nieces and nephews, have dinner and watch movies.
vampiremistress2010(at)gmail(dot)com
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My favorite traditions are decorating, baking, & spending time with the family 🙂
Thanks for the awesome giveaway!
cassandrahicks1989@yahoo.com
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Watching christmas movies all day long on Christmas day!
Hugs,
krystalshannan @ yahoo.com
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My husband puts up the lights, we trim the tree together, have some spiked eggnog while doing it and enjoy our time together.
woolfcindy@aol.com
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My holiday traditions are just relaxing and overdosing on holiday specials on TV 😉
Thanks for the giveaway!
farrahsayyedATgmailDOTcom
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I think the best thing about this season are the traditions.
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great post, I love Christmas traditions like baking and decorating…and opening the mail to hear from long-lost friends. 🙂
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Merry Christmas! The only tradition we have is me and the hubby cuddle up in front of the fire on Christmas Eve and listen to Christmas music while sipping Hot Chocolate Toddies. Hope you have a wonderful Christmas. Thanks for the chance to win.
reneebennett35 (at) yahoo (dot) com
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Enjoyed reading the comments.
My family always goes skiing in Colorado during the holidays. Living here in the desert of Arizona, this is a special treat for all of us.
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Our whole family gets together on Christmas Eve–but we don’t open presents, lol. I actually look forward to Christmas Eve more so than Christmas.
I loved All Wrapped Up.
brenda_dyer212@hotmail.com
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I’m now a different religion from the rest of my family (very long story), but I still enjoy helping them with their Christmas celebrations. My paternal grandpap was Slovakian and therefore followed Greek Orthodoxy, and he always left his tree up till after Orthodox Christmas in January. He claimed that was the reason his family got their tree after Western Christmas when he was a boy, but the real story, sadly, was that they had to salvage formerly used trees from the garbage dump because they were so poor from the Depression. At least my grandma was able to laugh about that when she told me the real story.
CarrieAnne79 (at) yahoo (dot) com
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We open one present on Christmas Eve, then all the others on Christmas day 😀
Thanks for doing the hop!
kimberlyFDR@yahoo.com
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We get together on Christmas eve to eat food, play games, and watch movies
dlatany at gmail dot com
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Lovely! All of those pictures of cookies made me hungry! That’s our tradition, my mother and I bake Hershey’s Kiss cookies!
ldsmith1818@gmail.com
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Because of all our moves, our tradition has been to spend Christmas with just the immediate family. I used to have a huge Tree Trimming party about 10 days before Christmas.
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We make cookies and candy and give them to friends and family.
angiek@cfu.net
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Happy Holidays my friend, I love your books
Ronda
mrsqueentutt@gmail.com
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One of our holiday traditions is to attend mass on Christmas Eve and then have dinner together as a family.
Thank you for the great giveaway!
– Tin (khriscc at yahoo dot com)
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LOVELY BLOG HO:P! thanQ!
redz041@yahoo.com
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